It is known that some brain abnormalities, disorders, or damage may cause abnormalities of spatial perception and attention disorders that in some professions may lead to increase in errors to the extent that the individual becomes unsuitable for the profession. Examples of such professions that may require extraordinary attention are pilots, air-traffic controllers, vehicle drivers, etc. The problems associated with abnormalities in spatial perception concern not only people involved in professions where lack of attention may lead to high-risk situations and even to fatal consequences, but also to events of the everyday life such as studying, operation on machine tools, computer programming, management, etc. In view of the above, it is important in some fields of human activities to test the individuals for fitness to their professions or types of work they conduct.
The method and apparatus of the invention are also important tools for testing children, e.g., with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
Heretofore, many methods and apparatuses are known in the art for testing spatial perception skills and thus for detecting fitness to the profession or activity.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,973,149 issued in 1990 to T. Hutchinson discloses a system for eye movement detection that utilizes an infrared light emitting diode mounted coaxially in front of the lens of an infrared sensitive video camera for remotely making images of the eye of a computer operator. The reflected light causes bright eye effect which outlines the pupil as brighter than the rest of the eye and also causes an even brighter small glint from the surface of the cornea. The computer includes graphic processing which takes a video image, digitizes it into a matrix of pixels and analyzes the matrix. Using special algorithms, the analysis determines the location of the pupil's center and the location of the glint relative to each other and with this information determines where the eye is gazing. If the eye-gaze is for a predetermined time at images in selected areas on the computer screen, the area is selected and results in actuation of other devices or the presentation of additional images on the screen.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,555,895 issued in 1996 to E. Ulmer, etc. describes a process and a device for analyzing the movement of the eye or eyes of a patient, i.e., of a human being or animal. A device comprising a first video camera, a second video camera, which first and second cameras are mounted on a spectacle frame and are rigidly connected together and form part of a removable module; said first and second cameras have points of sight of their respective scenes which are close. The technical domain of the invention is that of the manufacture of devices for measuring the movement of the eyes.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,422,690 issued in 1995 to M. Rothberg, et al. describes a fitness impairment tester that implements a self-administered screening test to determine whether a subject is physically impaired. The tester is fully automated to respond to the entering of a subject's personal identification on a keypad. By superposing two different colored lights as viewed through an eyepiece, the subject aligns his or her pupil on the optical axis of pupil imaging optics which focuses an image of the subject's pupil on an image plane. The tester automatically recognizes this condition and audibly signals the subject that the test is about to begin. Light stimuli are provided to cause the pupil to change size and the eye to move. Pupil diameter measurements are made of the image of the subject's pupil in response to on axis light stimuli. Eye tracking of the subject's eye in response to moving light stimuli provide a measure of eye movements. The data acquired by measuring pupil diameter and saccadic movements of the subject's eye as a function of time are compared with baseline data for the subject stored in a database, and an output indicative of a deviation of said current measurements from said baseline data is provided.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,668,622 issued in 1997 to C. Charbonnier describes a device for measuring the position of the fixing point (P′) of an eye on a video screen comprising: a mobile support positioned close to the eye and on which first illumination means and a video camera are fixed so as to embody images of the eye, and a fixed support distant from the eye and on which the video screen orientated opposite the eye and a plurality of luminous sources illuminating the eye in alternative with the first illumination means are positioned and disposed around the video screen so as to create on the eye corneal reflections and means for treating the images obtained from the eye. The invention also concerns an eye illumination method in which the eye is illuminated by flashes each emitted at the end of each taking of images, as well as an application of the device for displaying on the video screen images which change according to the movements of the eye wherein a high resolution zone (Z) is defined around the fixing point (P′) and for moving this zone according to the movements of the eye.
However, none of the references mentioned above and known to the inventors discloses a universal method or apparatus that provide testing of an individual with regard to abnormalities in spatial perception with the use of a two-screen principle for detecting specific deviations from normal perception of objects, stationary or moving, in the close-vision field and the far-vision field. Furthermore, none of the references mentioned above allows complete analysis of static and dynamic phenomena that occur in the spatial perception in switching the gaze on an object from the close-view field to the far-view field, or vice versa.